“You Won’t Meet the Code”- Million-Dollars Homes contravening the Ontario Building Code, CAN/CSA Sta
Your roof may collapse and injure your children –iJoists and Engineered Roof trusses, Not Used in Construction
Leonard Ro of Rogistics Supply Chain and Distribution, the Canadian leading procurement enterprises which undertakes compliance audits, procurement for builders and purchasing for contractors’ states that a significant proportion of homes in Canada were built using dimensional lumber SPF #1, #2- Rafter which contravene the applicable codes/ standards. As one of the leading authorities who has been inspecting and auditing, along with working in conjunction with a civil engineer for 7+ years indicates a vast amount of homes do not comply with the applicable standards. Leonard Ro states “this is the problem with home builders, who build homes which may not be code compliant, Condos and pre-fabricated components like pre-engineered trusses and iJoists comply with the applicable standards, however custom-built homes do not comply. In essence they negate the practicality of the process, since insurance for home builders who do not meet the applicable standards would not be eligible given the infringement of the contractual agreement which states that they are offering a service or product which is safe and meets the government legislative framework i.e. code compliant- for insurance for their home building corporations.
Tarion Warranty program which new home builders must pay yearly membership fees is governed by the federal government. The program provides $300K for new home buyers who have purchased a home that is non-compliant, however in order for the new home builder to pay into the program, the home builder must be code compliant for insurance underwriting purposes, etc. Leonard Ro states that these “home builders are essentially ripping customers off”. You cannot insure a vehicle without a safety inspection or certification, same thing with homes. You are purchasing homes from a builder which does not follow the laws ensuring safety and conformity to the Ontario Building code. Which also means that you are risking your roof from collapsing and injuring your loved ones.
I myself couldn’t sleep at night knowing my infant, young son or daughter is sleeping in a home in which the roof could collapse at any time. Leonard Ro’s father a civil engineer for over 30+ years identified and inspected several large structures throughout North America where he has compliance audited and provided the professional recommended remediations, etc. In Arkansas for instance, Young S. Ro made recommendations against a North American bridge builder in Webber Falls, Oklahoma regarding one of its supports due to an accident with a small boat which caused damage to the superstructure. In 2001. However, the builder did not retrofit the sections of the support which corrected those deficiencies found in a compliance audit. Several years later as one would have expected, a ship (barge) ran into the bridge which resulted in the bridge collapsing with 14 deaths when 6x of the vehicles drown into the water with motorist trapped in the vehicles. These deaths could have been avoided if they took the recommendations of the civil engineer inspecting the bridge.
It highlights the importance of ensuring the publics safety thru awareness and code compliant houses and condos conforming to the necessary legislation which ensures the safety of the public. Recently, Leonard Ro who has been undertaking inspections for over 7 years began to see a large number of homes which have had their roof’s collapse. He began to undertake an investigation on what could have resulted in the collapse of the homes roofs. He realized that home builders are building homes using rafters which span over 8ft, using 2x4 SPF #1 lumber without truss attachments, etc. He didn’t want to contact the building department for fear of reprisal from working at Facilities at University of Toronto for 6 years, so he decided to embark on an initiative to help home builders retrofit their homes properly. This means the roof system should be redesigned and retrofitted using trusses. If a home builder wants to do the fixes while the roof is attached, it likely isn’t code compliant and its questionable how the building department allowed the home inspection to pass in the first place. Namely 9.23.4.2.(1)- Table 6 provides the maximum spans of rafters. Home builders and carpenters usually negate the practicality of the process and bypass the legislation authority by using dimensional lumber which exceeds the allowable spans.
This is done due to expediency and ease of build, as opposed to understanding the limitations of SPF material, in which larger spans of wood for rafters over 8ft for example are not National Building Code compliant.
Leonard Ro will not say which home builders contravenes the rafter lengths, but he strongly feels that your roofs are in risk of collapsing. Leonard Ro cannot sleep at night knowing that your roofs are at risk of failure so he decided to go directly to the media first and not contact the building department or government.
